The Christian and Society

In November, our country will have another election.  Few churches talk about elections, and I think Christians often think that politics are not that important for Christians.  Our citizenship is in heaven, and we are just passing through.  Our hope is in God and not human deliverers. 

But then we still have to pay taxes, make a living, and make decisions about schools for our children and where we should live.

We wanted to send our kids to Christian schools, but we couldn’t afford it.  I discovered that 2/3 of our property taxes went for public schools.  I couldn’t send my kids to a Christian school, but I was paying for public schools.  So I would have to pay double for my kids’ education if I sent them to that private school. 

Welcome to politics. 

Public schools in Illinois are teaching your kids that they may not be the gender they were told when they were born.  They can be any gender they want, and they should decide this as soon as possible.  No time to waste with gender affirming surgeries and puberty blockers.

Where do your kids go to school?

Welcome to politics.

Christians are taught to be generous, help those who are in need, tithe to their churches, and support Christian organizations.  But you don’t think you bring enough money home from work to do all you want to do.

Welcome to politics.

Christians are aware of many of society’s ills, and we are taught that the way to change society is through personal conversions.  Change the people, and you change society.

Politicians know that if you change society, you change the people. 

Homosexuality has always been seen as an aberration in our society.  The norm was men and women getting married and having children.  The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, and soon homosexuality is normalized in our society.  Christian businesses are being litigated and forced to close, because they are being asked, I mean told, to do things contrary to their religious beliefs.

Welcome to politics.

We know we have the Great Commission, to win the world for Christ and to disciple the nations. 

We are told that our country was founded as a secular, pluralistic society.  We teach our kids in schools that they are animals just like dogs, cows, and chimpanzees.  Life is an accident of nature.

Then we wonder why it is so hard to talk to people about God.  God has been pushed so much out of the public consciousness, that people don’t give God a thought, and so we first have to try to prove to them that there is a God, that Christianity is indeed the right religion, that the Bible is the Word of God before we even get to share the gospel with them.

That didn’t use to be the case.

Welcome to politics. 

Our country is getting to the point where persecution for your Christian faith is becoming more and more a reality.  The freest country in the history of the world is becoming hostile toward the Christian faith.  Our rights come from God our Creator, and that includes a right to practice our faith.  But that is changing.

Welcome to politics.

In a war, you have soldiers shooting it out on the front lines.  But generals know it’s not enough just to kill more enemy soldiers than who kill yours.

They often will target ammunition factories, supply lines, and weapon storage facilities to weaken the enemy’s ability to continue the fighting.

Evangelism is sharing the gospel with people, the good news of Jesus Christ.  That is usually one-on-one engagements with people.  But if we allow our schools to teach that God is irrelevant and non-existent, that science is all we need to know, that the government is your Benefactor and Protector, your success in reaching people for Christ is going to be greatly hampered.

Repentance is still a part of the gospel message, but if there is no right and wrong but what you believe for yourself, there is nothing to repent of. 

Yes, I know that the early church changed the world.  They also believed in the power of God, and we usually relegate that to Bible days.  The Church is one more thing vying for the attention of the masses.  We resort to social media trying to get a hearing, and it’s not working very well.

Politics used to just be about paying for roads and police departments and schools, but people are trying to change our entire society through politics.  They are masters of language usage, so that killing preborn babies is really about personal autonomy and protecting those babies violates people’s basic human rights.

Welcome to politics.

You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  But you have to be out in the world to make any kind of difference.  You have to be on those school boards, those city councils, those House and Senate chambers, or you have to vote for those who will serve in your place. 

Welcome to politics.

Does Satan accuse us before God?

We saw that the Old Testament spoke often about demons, but it’s hard to think that all this demonic activity at the time of Jesus is just a continuation of life as usual from before.

This is my tentative explanation:

Start here

Revelation 12 (NASB95) ¹ A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; ² and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. ³ Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. ⁴ And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. ⁵ And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. ⁶ Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. ⁷ And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, ⁸ and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. ⁹ And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹ “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. ¹² “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” ¹³ And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. ¹⁴ But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. ¹⁵ And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. ¹⁶ But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. ¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation is a difficult book to understand.  Are the visions in chronological order, meaning, the things depicted by them?

I don’t think so.

Cf. Revelation 4, where John is taken up to heaven, and he sees the throne of God and the 24 thrones of the elders.  There is a book there that is sealed, and there is nobody to open the book.  Until finally the lamb appears to open the book.

The Lamb is Jesus, but why wasn’t He seated at the right hand of God at the beginning of the vision. 

Because it was a vision and not literal historical fact.  The vision was of the past.  The Lamb was not yet seated at the Father’s right hand.

So in Revelation 12, a woman gave birth to a male son who is about to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron.  Who else is this but Jesus?  This would be Jesus’ incarnation, His birth into our world.

And then there is a war in heaven.  And the dragon, Satan, is cast out and thrown to the earth. 

Revelation 12:10 (NASB95) ¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.

Remember how in Job and Zechariah, Satan had access to the throne of God, and he was able to accuse Job and Joshua the High Priest before God. 

But Paul says now: Romans 8:33–35 (NASB95) ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

How can Paul say this, and why did Paul say this, if Satan still was able to accuse us before God?

Consider these passages from the gospels:

John 12:31 (NASB95)  ³¹ “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

Cast out of where?  Where else but heaven?

Luke 10:17–19 (NASB95) ¹⁷ The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” ¹⁸ And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. ¹⁹ “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

If this happened thousands of years ago, Jesus would have said, I saw, not, I was watching.

Revelation 12:9 (NASB95)  ⁹ And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

These other angels who were thrown down with Satan would account for the abundance of demonic activity at the time of Jesus.

Revelation 12:12 (NASB95) ¹² “. . . Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

Revelation 12:17 (NASB95) ¹⁷ So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

This all seems related to Peter’s words:

1 Peter 5:8 (NASB95)  ⁸ Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

I don’t pretend that this will answer all the questions.  I still have some.  But I think it answers a lot of them.